Every autumn, pronghorn antelope make one of the longest land migrations in North America.
Following ancient routes laid down over millennia, they move from their summer ranges on the high plains down to lower winter habitats where snow is shallower and food remains accessible. Then, in spring, they make the journey back. Covering hundreds of miles, navigating by memory, instinct, and the rhythms of the season, they have been doing this longer than there have been roads, farms, or fences to interrupt them.
The fences came anyway. And for the pronghorn of Wyoming's broad valleys, some of those fences — strung generations ago for sheep ranching — became lethal obstacles. Unlike deer, pronghorn do not jump well. They evolved on open plains, built for speed and endurance, not for vertical leaping. Traditional sheep fencing, with its tightly strung lower wire, is a barrier that pronghorn cannot clear and may become trapped in attempting to crawl under.
Now, 24 miles of that old fencing is gone — replaced by wildlife-friendly alternatives. And more than 9,000 acres of winter habitat are, once again, safely accessible.
**A Collaborative Win**
The project was coordinated by the **US Fish and Wildlife Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program**, working alongside the **Wyoming Game and Fish Department** and private landowners who voluntarily participated in the fence replacement effort.
The key design change sounds simple: raising the bottom wire of fencing to allow pronghorn to slide under, and lowering the top wire to make crossing easier for larger animals like elk. These modifications preserve the fencing's function for cattle grazing while removing the barriers that have cost wildlife populations significant numbers of animals every year — through injury, entanglement, and exhaustion.
The work involved removing old sheep fencing and installing wildlife-compatible alternatives across 24 miles of critical migration corridor. With each mile converted, the animals' path becomes safer and the ancient migration route more intact.
**Why Pronghorn Migration Matters**
Pronghorn are among the great success stories of North American wildlife management — populations collapsed in the early 20th century due to overhunting, but recovered significantly following conservation efforts. Today, Wyoming holds one of the continent's largest pronghorn populations.
But that population relies on migration to survive. Pronghorn that cannot access their winter range may face starvation when summer forage disappears under snow. Blocked migration routes fragment populations genetically over time, reducing resilience. And animals that attempt to cross incompatible fencing may be injured or killed — losses that compound across seasons.
The 9,000 acres unlocked by this project aren't just habitat. They are winter survival grounds — the places where Wyoming's pronghorn wait out the cold months and emerge in spring ready to breed and move north again.
**Private Land, Shared Purpose**
One of the most significant aspects of this project is that it happened on private land, through voluntary participation. Landowners agreed to modify fencing they own, on property they manage, for the benefit of wildlife that belongs to everyone.
This kind of collaborative conservation — federal agencies, state wildlife programmes, and private citizens working toward a shared outcome — represents one of the most effective models for landscape-scale wildlife recovery in the American West. It requires trust, communication, and a shared understanding that the wildlife moving across private land is part of a living system that benefits everyone.
**The Migration Continues**
The pronghorn don't know that the fences changed. They only know that a route that was difficult is easier now, that a barrier that cost them energy and sometimes lives has been removed, that the land they've been crossing for longer than anyone can remember is, in some small way, more theirs again.
Twenty-four miles of fence. Nine thousand acres. The ancient migration continues. 🦌
*Sources: US Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program (fws.gov, March 2026) · Wyoming Game and Fish Department*
